When it comes to the ancient world, what Catherine Nixey calls “the story of wicked, oppressing Romans crushing the Christians of the empire who just wanted to be free and wanted to praise God” in this episode of The World in Time is a familiar one. Unfortunately, “when you look at almost any element of that story, it’s nonsense.” In her book The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World, she sets out to dismantle this well-trod foundational myth. Nixey spoke with Lapham’s Quarterly about how ancient Christians did much to crush to the world they inhabited.

Lewis H. Lapham talks with Catherine Nixey, author of The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World.

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